Elections Alberta hiring 60,000 ballot counters for fall referendum
Massive hiring effort begins June 8 for hand-counting votes within 48 hours of polls closing on October 19.
Elections Alberta is launching a major hiring effort next month to staff the unprecedented logistics of a provincial referendum on Alberta's place in Canada.
The agency says 60,000 or more elections officers will be needed to hand-count ballots — a requirement under provincial law that votes be counted within 48 hours after polling stations close. All positions are paid and open to anyone over 16 who passes a criminal record check.
Hiring begins June 8. Elections Alberta is counting on Albertans to step forward for the work.
Premier Danielle Smith announced last week that on October 19, Albertans will vote on whether they want to remain in Canada or hold a second binding vote on the province going its own way. That will be the first of 10 questions on the ballot; the other nine cover immigration and constitutional reform, each on its own colour-coded ballot sheet.
The scope is massive: Elections Alberta expects to need 34 million ballot sheets total. The referendum represents an operational challenge unlike anything the province has undertaken in recent memory — the combination of manual counting requirements and the sheer number of voting positions required across all ridings.